No confidence in Stellar

Friday

TAUNTON — With mere days remaining until classes start, the city teachers union’s frustrations have come to a head.

By an “overwhelming” margin, members of the Taunton Education Association cast a “no confidence” vote in Superintendent Arthur W. Stellar, union officials confirmed.

With mere days remaining until classes start, the city teachers union’s frustrations have come to a head.

By an “overwhelming” margin, members of the Taunton Education Association cast a “no confidence” vote in Superintendent Arthur W. Stellar, union officials confirmed.

“The association believes that key decisions by Dr. Stellar have not been made in the best interest of the students of the Taunton public school system,” union president Ann Marie Benedetti said. “We believe that he has ignored teacher input and has acted without regard to the impact of his decisions on teachers and students.”

She cited Stellar’s “hasty and disruptive” decision to change teaching assignments and alter certain classes just before the start of school as reasons behind the vote.

Stellar, who said the focus should be on helping the children, vowed that the vote will not change the way his office operates.

“I don’t think it means anything,” he said. “The issue should not be the superintendent. It’s the students.”

The superintendent also hinted that he thinks the vote may have been politically motivated.
“It may have more to do with the politics of the election season than anything else,” he said.

When asked to elaborate, Stellar replied, “I think people can figure it out for themselves.”
School Committee member Barry Cooperstein was much more direct.

“It’s fairly obvious that the teachers union is more interested in being political and electing Mr. Cleary than it is in serving the school district and students,” Cooperstein said. “I assume the theory is: The worse you can make Dr. Stellar look, the better [Cleary will look].”

Donald L. Cleary, who retired as superintendent just before Stellar was appointed, is running for mayor against incumbent Charles Crowley.

“This was a nefarious method of attacking a person under the guise of education for a political purpose,” Cooperstein continued.

Cleary vehemently denied having a role in the union vote.

“I’m absolutely insulted by that,” he said. “The teachers union has not called me, and I have not under any circumstance been involved.”

The mayoral candidate said there are some teachers working on his campaign, but denied ever discussing union votes or policy with them.

Cleary also criticized Cooperstein for suggesting otherwise.

“You talk about playing politics,” he said.

Crowley declined to comment on the union vote.

Benedetti also denied Cleary’s political aspirations had any influence on the “no confidence” vote.
“That wasn’t even considered or brought up by our leadership,” she said. “Don Cleary did not have any knowledge this vote.”

The vote, which comes less than nine months after the School Committee issued a similar “no confidence” vote in December, was taken Wednesday during a Taunton Education Association meeting. More than half of the 556-member union was present at the meeting, but the vote took place in executive session. Benedetti, who teaches first grade at East Taunton Elementary School, declined to disclose the exact break-down of the vote.

She said morale is low and many teachers were upset by Stellar’s decision to shuffle some teaching assignments just before the start of school.

“This is proving to be chaotic and will increase class sizes for some students,” she said.

The school district is facing a $3 million budget shortfall and was forced to eliminate 15 positions earlier this month. Adding to the budgetary problems, the School Committee did not approve a budget until Aug. 1 — a full month after the new fiscal year began.

“There’s been a lot of change,” Stellar said. “There are accountability issues and budgetary issues. I didn’t create these things.”

Stellar added that he still has confidence in the city’s teachers.

“I think they’re doing a good job,” he said.

Describing another union complaint, Benedetti said Stellar has asked teachers to teach areas for which they are not licensed.

“Too many students are being taught by teachers who are being required to work outside their areas of licensure and expertise,” she said. “This is bad for the students and also jeopardizes the teachers’ job security for the future.”

School Committee member Josephine B. Almeida said she has received many complaints addressing the same concerns the union cited.

“I’ve received a lot of phone calls this year about dissatisfaction,” Almeida said.

“It’s been a very difficult year with the budget and teachers being moved around,” she added.

Committeeman Peter H. Corr said he has noticed tensions rising for quite some time.

“It’s been at a boiling point for awhile,” he said. “Now it finally boiled over.”

gtuoti@tauntongazette.com

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